Archive for December, 2011

Fast approaching the New Year here and with it the month of January. Best wishes to all for MMXII!

January is named after Janus (Ianuarius), naturally, who is the god of doorways, pictured as looking both forward and back. Thus, we will revisit the themes of doorways, transport and travel for January. What with stepping into the New Year. As usual, if there is something on this theme you would like to see, let me know.

Looking back over December, we see another month of light but hopefully interesting posting:

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Having completed their first scouting mission seeking the crystal orb of air, with a slight change of active characters (down a rogue up an alchemist and a druid) and restocking of potions, they returned arriving in the middle of a hailstorm. Zandrick dragged the captured mephit, named Graz, back with them. Making their way back to the ruined citadel, they found that the giant’s skeleton had been totally stripped of flesh. Old Monk Yoon was still meditating outside of the citadel and had no new information to impart.

Their investigation of the ruins only afforded them a better view of the local terrain, everything of value had already been stripped or succumbed to the ages. But from the tower, they saw a distant island that glinted like crystal so they decided to head there. They were just on their way when they attracted the attention of a flock of terror birds, six two-meter tall flightless hunting birds, who rushed to attack and were pretty nasty smashing with their axe-like beaks. They put the monk down and got some good blows in before their numbers were seriously diminished with the last two fleeing. Pho ate most of one of the bird after the battle ended and they planned to roast the others later.

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The first wave of the dwarven soldiers was like an irresistible tide, while they moved slowly, even for dwarves their heavy armor seemed impenetrable to our weapons. It was only once we were able to bring the ballista to bear that we were able to slow, not stop, their advance. Ultimately, it was only the deep stream that saved us, the dwarves seemed unwilling to try to cross it once we had burned the bridge.

Stone Golem Potion

These potions are a deep gray in color and gritty in consistency, with almost not smell but they taste of stone. These potions must be stored in stone, ceramic or glass vials.

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I was watching the video of Emilie Autumn‘s Marry Me (mildly NSFW for language) and it brought this issue to mind as a possible source of conflict, challenge and adventure.

While marriage does not usually figure as one of the major themes of roleplaying games, it is an important facet of human life and culture and often a major component to the actions of people in a world. As such, it deserves to be looked at as a source of both character development and adventure ideas. First, we will look at arranged marriages.

Having retrieved the Crown for exchange with the Sun Cult (see Episode 2), our heroes (Bradly, Defender, Nikko, Zandrik and the new member, Malik) were dispatched to locate a crystal orb aligned with air. Unfortunately, the Pattern was having trouble locating it exact position, so this would be a scouting mission, they were given a description of the item on a scroll however. As the group were short on healers each member was given two potions in bottles marked with a honeycomb design.

Passing through the gate from the Complex, they found themselves in a particularly fractured section of the Sea of Stars, with many small islands (city block down to box sized) floating in random patterns around each other. Ducking a ball of lightning that shot across the island they were on, they explored further: noting bits of wood floating in a orbit around the largest islands and a ruining citadel on a distant island. Defender decided that the citadel was their objective and set off via the islands while the monk decided to take the direct route leaping from wooden flotsam to jetsam.

Ruined Citadel

Flickers, and the occasional ball, of lightning danced in the distance as they moved forward. They were almost to the citadel when a cloud of smoke enshrouded the island they were about to move to. Defender moved into the smoke, followed by the others, only to have a rock crash into the ground next to him. Malik shouted a warned after seeing a large head briefly emerge above the smoke. Zandrick sends dancing spheres of light to try and reveal their foe in the smoke and it does, a dirty giant clad in furs and armed with a massive club. Bradly’s attempts to talk the giant down did not go well (“My sister is a what?”). It is a brutal fight, with even a weak giant proving its danger, finally requiring all our heroes combined effort to bring him down (Malik bounding over to join in).

Gathered from across the Sea of Stars a motley group of venturers works to reestablish the mysterious Pattern which is said to restore order to the fractured world.

Setting: This will be set in the Sea of Stars and from the Complex, the characters will have access to rapid travel.
• Continuity: Episodic with arcs.
• Rating: PG in general, slavery and a few other unpleasant situation may be touched upon but will not be the focus of the campaign.
• Style: Adventure, exploration and combat with occasion social situations.
• Tone: Action-adventure.

Rules: Pathfinder with Sea of Stars house rules.
• Firearms: No.
• Psionics: You can use the psionics rules to represent another form of magic, but, in the end, it is just magic.
• Other Outside Materials: Any Pathfinder-compatible material will be considered but will be subject to review. But all ideas are welcome.

Characters: All Core and Expanded Pathfinder classes (except Gunslinger) and races (except for gnomes and halflings) are allowed, several Sea of Stars specific races are available.
• Character History: A paragraph or two about who your character is and where they are from.
• Starting Power Level: As per standard Sea of Stars character creation (3rd level to start).

Where do we Play?: Tyche’s Games, Thursday, 6-9ish PM.
• Down Times: Players are welcome to have their character undertake tasks between games, communication via written note or email for such so it does not slow down our limited face to face gaming time.
• Social Contract: We usually order food before the game starts as a group, but you are not required to partake of such.